Add as a preferred source on Google We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Amazon Table of Contents A versatile portable speaker is a great addition to your summer kit—but while lots of speakers claim to be portable, many of them are surprisingly bulky, not very durable, or deliver tinny sound. The JBL Go 4 has none of those issues. It’s currently one of the best travel speakers in its price ran...

Table of contents If you have ever bought a laptop and felt frustrated when something breaks, you cannot fix it yourself, or the battery dies just two years in, Framework laptops were built for you. Framework Computer is an American laptop maker founded in January 2020 by Nirav Patel, a former Apple engineer who also led hardware at Oculus and Meta. His idea was simple: laptops should be built to last, and when something goes wrong, you should be able to fix it yourself without sending it to a s...

A tough, Google-free Android phone with a swappable battery? Sign me up! Volla German smartphone maker Volla has launched two new mid-range phones that go against the grain. The Volla Phone Plinius and Plinius Plus are built to last, ship without Google, and let you swap the battery yourself. That last part alone makes them stand out from almost every other smartphone on the market. Both phones share the same core design: a flat frame, slim bezels, and a 6.67-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refre...

“Two years ago, we needed 40GWh of storage operational by 2030. That has now increased to 56GWh solely due to solar penetration,” said Paul Peters, CEO of New South Wales’ Energy Security Corporation, speaking at the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2026 last month. “Of the 56GWh needed, 12.5GWh has hit the financial investment decision. 75% of what we need in 2030 is not there today.” Average battery discharge reached 359MW during the quarter, more than three times the 98MW recorded in...

Published Apr 30, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Rob LeFebvre is an editor and writer focusing on consumer and enterprise technologies for a broad range of outlets. He’s been writing online for more than 15 years; before that he was a special educator for kids with severe disabilities. Rob has been an Editorial Director at Lifewire, a news writer at Engadget, and a senior contributor at Cult of Mac. He’s written about PCs, Macs, mobile phones, and games, created newsrooms from the ground up, and ha...

By Irina Slav – Apr 30, 2026, 5:00 PM CDT Oil and gas shortages are accelerating interest in wind, solar, and especially battery storage as countries seek reliable alternatives. Researchers developed a low-cost “all-iron” flow battery with long life (6,000+ cycles), high efficiency, and no degradation—potentially a major improvement over lithium-ion. Cheaper, safer batteries could unlock large-scale renewable adoption, but concerns remain around scalability and global dependence on C...